Better Half
by SkyyeStrike
Summary: Normally, he is what he is not. But she knows. She knows every time she drags her nails down his chest. These moments are theirs and theirs alone. And that was all that matter.


_You are my better half._

* * *

Normally, he is everything he is not.

He is perfect and poised. Utterly meticulous- in appearance, in conduct, in decisions. He was just what he should be. The clean cut, in control business man charged with the care and future of a megapolis. He was the top, and nothing less was expected.

So he sits through the endless meetings. Conferences of importance, issues pushed through through directly to the top, executive decisions immediatly in need of addressing…. it was what he lived and breathed. From the moment he rolled out of bed in his crisp white condo in the morning and through day after day of paperwork. Unending and unfulfilling.

But now is not normally. Now is not what he pretends and what is necessary. Now is him. Just him. Nothing more, nothing less. Nothing else.

And she knows. She knows as she crouches over him, tracing needle sharps imprints up the lines of his chest with her nail. She breathes it as she kisses his neck with an open-mouth and a small smile. This is a him only she gets to see and this is a her no one else will ever know.

He gives in to the need and the pressure, and partakes in the ambrosia. Gives in and its their little secret.

He loves to press her against the wall. Loves this perfect little demon that is everything he is not, everything he wishes he could be. She is wild and reckless where he is careful and ordered. She is emotional while he is tactical. She is the fresh breeze, unable to be controlled and he is an ocean unable to be tempered. And when they're together he feels like nothing else matters.

He wraps her in his arms to covet her, cherish her, for all that she is his. He loves to hold her body and run his fingers over the skin of her stomach, up over breasts that fit just perfectly in the palm of his hand, loves to caress her neck and squeeze just so…

And she loves him back. She loves him with a feral intensity he can barely keep up with. Her love is raw and strong and utterly uncumbering and it drowns him sometimes, scares him. And he loves her for it. She is his other half. He is the night and she is the day. She is all he ever wanted and more.

And they never needed to know about each other. Their nights were theirs alone. Nothing else really had mattered. It didn't matter what his days were or where she went when she disappeared in the wee hours of the night. He was content with it and so was she and that was their little secret as well.

He treasures his nights with her. He relishes in the scent of cinnamon and dust and spice and he lavishes her body in kisses, in bites and marks. He loves her for all he's worth until the both of them are too tired for more, and then in the morning he slinks away. To a different world and a different life where she can mean nothing to him and he is too far away for her to touch.

And one day, he grows tired of the slinking. So he changes.

He spends weeks looking for the right location, and then he buys out the highest bidder so she can have the best. And then, while she's gone that day, he has all her stuff moved or replaced. New bed, new mirrors, new soaps, new clothes… anything she ever wanted. Anything she ever wished. He gives her it all.

And when she figures it out, she hates him and loves him all at once. She hits him for his audacity, kisses him for his thought, and fucks him to show her gratitude. And they fuck in front of the floor to ceiling windows giving her a view of the entire bay.

He pays for it the way he knew he would.

His wife won't talk to him- not that she was before, but that doesn't matter. His father disapproves, but he has long since evaded that complex. He is in charge. He is on top. His decision is executive. But it still hurts.

Itachi is the one who advises him. Cautions, but encouragements as well. And he takes it all with a grain of salt, in love, in lust, and still lost in the world.

He thinks that maybe she can help him find himself.

But it is not what he expected.

He loves her, and she loves him, but they never click the way he wants. There is something missing- some puzzle piece he can't seem to find and fit into place. And he's still looking and he feels himself slipping from her.

He knows she can tell, too.

But she bares it in silence. Forever laughing. Forever joking. She loves him, even though it's seeming hard to find it in himself to love her wholly again. She cares for him, like a shepherd for her sheep and he's grateful and confused and uncertain about everything. He loves her. He wants to love her, but there was something wrong he could not place.

He showers her in gifts. Buys her everything. Practically buys her the world before she tells him to stop. Tells him she has everything, what she wants is him.

He ravages her and she lets him. He pounces and she gives easily, with spread legs and welcoming arms as he draws blood and cries from her beautiful, beautiful throat. She loves him for it. Hates him for it too. Can't get enough.

And its the last for a long time.

He doesn't see her. She is safe in the fortress he's created for her and he is busy with his corporation and his failing marriage and his broken family. He does not see her, but every day his thoughts stray to her. Her gold hair, wild and unruly, her skin, soft and tan from working under the hot sun, the scars across her palms, her arms, her face… Everything from the quirk of her mouth as she grins to the sapphire blue of her smiling eyes. He loves her and he misses her like he has never missed anything before. And for the first time, he is afraid of himself.

Eventually, he finds himself again. He finds himself, drunk one night, wandering to her doorstep, down the luxury hallways that led to the apartment he'd gotten her, and banging on the door. And then, when there's no answer and he feels desperation kick in, he lets himself in anyways.

Thats when he finds what he's missing.

She's there, but its not her. The woman standing before him was not Naruto. It couldn't be. But it was. Clad from head to toe in body armor, armed to her teeth, staring at him with wide, terrified eyes. She stutters in that entrancingly familiar voice to him, but he can't hear. God, he can barely breathe. His flower, his star in the sky, controlled but uncontrolled…

She explains in broken tones. She sits at his feet and cries and tells him everything and he is terrified. She is more than he knew, more than he expected and he's not sure what to do. What should he do?

But suddenly, things make sense. The history of her he'd never known, the scars littering her body, paper thin and silvery, the callouses that toughened her palms and feet, chests he'd never opened, appointments never confirmed- it all suddenly made sense in horrifying clarity.

But the puzzle suddenly fits. And his betrayal fades. And he still loves her. And she still loves him. He'd thought she was the sun to his moon, but really, he'd had it wrong. She was the night, dark, mysterious and dangerous. He was the day. Her better half. And he loved her for it.

For the first time they made love. Truely. It was different than their rutting, than the desperate nights that shared, the stolen moments behind bars, in cars, in alleys… this was love, pure and sweet. She shows him what she is, shows him what she's capable of. And he reveals himself, his wrongs and his right and everything he is until they are both naked to each other for the first time in what feels like forever.

It feels like the first drink of water he'd never known he'd been searching for.

When he kisses her, he pours everything in his soul into her and pulls all her lies away from her shell. And things suddenly felt right.

* * *

He divorced his wife. It had been long overdue, and Sakura honestly deserved better. He knew that. His company thrived across the continent, growing faster than anticipated. And he spent his nights in the arms of his lover, because there he was himself, not the cultured a-class man he'd been taught to be. There she was the girl he'd fallen in love with, not the shadow scrawled in the headlines of papers in black and white. It was just them… them against the world.

She asked him to leave with her. Quiet and tenderly one night as he leans against the headboard and pulls on a rare cigarette after a long day. He watches her. Watches her eyes, bluer than the sea, stare up at him imploringly, revealing nothing.

He asks her why, but she just shrugs. He asks her to where and she sighs indifferently.

"Whats the point of adventure if you already know where you'll end up?"

And that ends that conversation. She doesn't mention it again, but something heavy and hard settles into the pit of his stomach and wastes away there, poisonously. He wants to ask, but can never bring himself to.

And then one day she's gone.

He comes home and the door is locked. And when it opens, her home- their home is empty. Everything of his in it's right place; every book, every paper, even the leftovers from the night before, but her things…. it's like she never existed. No clothing, no makeup, no gear. Not even a strand of blond hair in the drain of their shower.

He breaks down and cries. He knows he'll probably never know why, only that she's gone. Gone from him and he's lost the only thing lighting up his sky and he knows that it hurts. So he mourns and mourns and nothing changes for a long time. Even Itachi eventually gives up. All he feels is an emptiness like he hadn't felt in ages and it burns him to think about it.

So he doesn't. And it's almost as if they'd never happened. There is no word, no sound, no thought of her, and he is not content, but satisfied with it that way.

But he's not. He'll never be.

* * *

_For those of you not quite understanding what happened in this story, Sasuke and Naruto both lived a half-life. Sasuke was a business con. He took a business from his father and built it into a megapolis, but he always did what was expected. When he met Naruto, he wanted to be more than what he was and he fell in love. So he bought her an apartment so that they would stop having to hide their affiliation as much. Why Naruto was angry when he moved her without her actual consent was because of her job description._

_What Naruto didn't know about Sasuke was that she was a hired hand. A hitman, per se and by moving her, he unknowingly compromised her position be making her noticeable. But it gave her a chance to start slipping away from the job slowly. _

_The piece Sasuke was missing was her story. He could never figure out why this girl wanted him and no one else and what so perfect to him. What he didn't know was that she truely need him as much as he needed her. He was her salvation as much as she was his. And when he found it, it both terrified the both of them, but gave Naruto the opportunity she needed. Now she could leave with no loose ends for good and still be happy._

_So she tried to leave with him, and when he implied a no, she closed herself off. And in the end, she left. And it broke him, but probably not as much as her. Because they were each others halves._

_I just thought the story needed some explaining because there is a lot to it written between the lines. I'm thinking maybe this could be a spin-off into a good story, but I can't write it. I just can't. I'd run out of content, honestly. But if someone wants to take it off my hands...?_

_Sorry for errors. And horrible quality. I don't have a beta or proof-reader of any sort, so my stuff is kinda shit. But I'm trying to get into posting more. So take some angst. Ha._

* * *

Songs-

Goodbye- Celldweller

Cry Little Sister- I Will Never Be The Same

Tomorrow- SR-71

Words- 1820


End file.
